Transform an ordinary room into a bright space with a dash of red – and any of these 10 online buys.

1. Lillian Knit Cushion R499, Country Road

2. Mini Alarm Clock R90, Big Blue

3. Traditional Whistling Kettle R1 600, Le Creuset

4. Retro Spot Lamp R259.99, Mr P Home

5. Linea 4 Slice Toaster R699, Bella at Yuppiechef.com

6. Coca Cola & Herschel Lawson Backpack R1 599, Superbalist.com

7. Striped Bunny Warming Bag R240, Woolworths

8. Red Food Chopper R1 890, KitchenAid at @home

9. Zoku Character Pop Bunny R139, @home

10. Storage Tower R1 999, Radius at Superbalist.com

The post 10 Bright Buys In Red appeared first on Visi.

Red Chamber, one of Joburg’s best-loved Chinese restaurants, recently changed not only its address but also its entire image.

When Hyde Park Corner Shopping Centre decided on a revamp that would take its retail offering into international designer territory, they invited their older tenants to join them on a journey into serious luxury. One of those was the Red Chamber, the Chinese restaurant that had, for 18 happy years, served what many regard as Joburg’s finest Chinese food in a fairly traditional setting on the upper level opposite Luminance boutique.

In the changes at Hyde Park, Red Chamber moved downstairs into the entertainment zone, around the corner from the cinemas and with the opportunity to spill out into the corridor. The new restaurant is looking chic and slick, and still boasts one of the city’s most authentic Chinese menus.

Restaurateur Emma Chen, who moved to South Africa from Taiwan at the age of 22, says she had relished the opportunity to revamp the restaurant that she had started 26 years earlier. Together with her husband Colin Myburgh – and with a fair amount of brainstorming with close friend and VISI deputy editor Annemarie Meintjes – she decided on a direction that is more Manhattan than Mainland China. All the traditional Chinese elements are there, only updated for the sophisticated 21st-century palate, using broad strokes and bold lines.

Emma says the new look is the coming together of years of research she and her husband have done on their travels. “From Norway to Beijing, we have always kept an eye on modern restaurant design trends, and this is what we’ve brought to the Red Chamber’s new look.”

The lucky colour red features prominently in the Red Chamber’s new interior. Caesarstone Red Shimmer engineered stone cladding is wrapped around the entrance area and the reception zone. Oversized ancient jade-green wooden doors against one wall and solid brass panels against another give the glow that is another Chinese restaurant staple – only updated.

The lighting at the Red Chamber is provided by graphic light boxes and an organic grouping of pillow-shaped paper lanterns above the reception area.

“We wanted a modern version of the Chinese paper lantern and Annemarie found these in Europe for us,” says Emma. “They are just perfect.”

In the private dining room area, glowing green walls are a show-stopping design feature. Colin installed a massive LED system on the wall behind vivid images of green bamboo. Emma says this is also a nod to the restaurant’s previous incarnation: “We had the bamboo upstairs, but in a more traditional style. We wanted the element of classic bamboo in the new restaurant but gave it a modern twist.”

It’s a theme that runs through the entire new design of Red Chamber: A classic concept in a modern design language that has successfully avoided any gimmicks.

For more information, visit redchamber.co.za or contact 011 325 6048 or info@redchamber.co.za.

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January’s Plascon Colour of the Month is Marsala (aka the 2015 Pantone Colour of the Year). This reddish brown tone reminds us of terracotta, face-brick and Italian wine. Here are 8 objects you can buy online that celebrate this earthy shade.

1. Dodo R4 395, Magis at Crema Design

2. Noodle Memory Foam Mat R229.99, Mr Price Home

3. Ice Cream Maker – Double R835, Yuppiegadgets

4. Winston Brogue Watch R999, Komono at Superbalist.com

5. Blade Twist Cork Screw R599.95, Menu at Entrepo

6. Progressive Silicone Thermometer R133.80, Banks

7. Berry Jam Jar with Silicone Spreader R235, Le Creuset

8. Artisan Cordless Kettle R2 290, KitchenAid at Yuppiechef.com

 For more colour inspiration, visit plasconspaces.co.za

The post 8 Buys Inspired By Marsala appeared first on Visi.

It’s payday, which means you really can treat yourself to something special. We found 5 must-have kitchen accessories that are bound to brighten up your kitchen in no time. Plus, you can buy them all online right now.

1. Nespresso Maestria Rosso C500 Coffee Machine R5 949, @home

2. Dualit 4 Slice Classic Toaster R4 400, Takealot.com

3. Luisa Mechanical Kitchen Scale R549, Yuppiechef.com

4. Eva Solo Smiley Bowl R998.30, Banks Kitchen Boutique

5. Citrus Juicer R320, Le Creuset

The post Red-Hot Kitchen Accessories appeared first on Visi.

Originally published in Rapport Mytyd. Subscribe here.

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Who doesn’t dream of living each day as if it was a holiday? Architect Thomas Gouws has designed a home where you will feel as if you are living in a five-star contemporary lodge.

It isn’t everyone’s privilege to build the house of their dreams. Most of us buy a previously owned home, make the structural changes we can afford and then set about perfecting our desired lifestyle with interior trimmings such as furniture and art.

But to stand on a piece of land, survey the landscape and view, and then dream up a house and build it – now that is a true luxury. When that piece of land is part of a visionary project to transform a piece of Gauteng into Highveld bushveld, well, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Inspired by the context

Pretoria architect Thomas Gouws says each building he designs is inspired almost entirely by its context and, in this case, the views. Nothing happens until he has stood on the ground where the house will stand and absorbed every aspect of the location.

This is exactly what happened at Serengeti, the Golf and Wildlife Estate 12kms northeast of OR Tambo International Airport, where Thomas was one of five leading Gauteng architects asked to design a show home to be displayed to the public when the estate went on sale. The other architects were Stauch Vorster (who designed two homes), Suzette Hammer of SBE Architects & Designers, Nico van der Meulen and Joehan Erasmus of Edmonds and Erasmus Design Consultancy.

Serengeti offers an enviable lifestyle, with 280 hectares of indigenous grasses, rehabilitated wetlands and a variety of buck and birdlife on your doorstep. This is no faux Tuscan monstrosity but an authentic nod to what Gauteng once looked like before the highways.

The estate includes an equestrian centre and 17kms of bridle paths through the conservation area. All this and the development’s proximity to the airport are attractions that are bound to make Serengeti popular among commuters who crave a real escape from the city when they get home.

Thomas’s brief was to create a home with a contemporary bush lodge atmosphere. He focused on the use of glass and stone to give the house an earthy feel, yet to open it up to the glorious bushveld surroundings. The resulting volume, the sheets of glass and the roof that seems to float in the sky at night would stop the average zebra dead in its tracks!

The site allocated for the house fans out towards the western horizon, so this is precisely the template Thomas used to design the double-storey home. The walls fan out from the point of entry, opening up the house to the expansive views. The lap pool is strategically placed as a focal point and is used to draw attention to the landscape beyond.

From the entrance foyer, the house splits in two with the left wing of the fan housing the living, entertaining and cooking area, and the right leading to the bedrooms. It is a neat categorisation that lends the house logic and simplicity.

Natural materials for an earthy look

In keeping with the bushveld theme, the home has been built using neutral-coloured materials, including stone, concrete, steel and timber. Paint finishes are all muted colours drawn from the natural surroundings. Madikwe slate was used for interior and exterior feature stone walls, while an Africote cement wash on the bedroom walls is warm and effective.

Throughout the house, Thomas has made use of large expanses of frameless glass to enhance the feeling of space and to give an uninterrupted view of the outside world. Even the pool “fence” is made of glass.

Two main bedrooms (the one upstairs mirrors another downstairs) share the living area’s dramatic view to the west, with over-sized sliding sunscreen shutters providing privacy and shade when required. Additional privacy is achieved by hidden automated block-out blinds (recessed in the ceilings). This allows for the best of both worlds: instantly transforming an open room with unrestricted views into a secluded retreat with the push of a button.

A pop of colour

All the earthy tones and wide open spaces could have become monotonous had Thomas not chosen to inject a sense of fun into the house with a bright red kitchen appearing to float in the centre of the living and entertaining area.

Designed by Thomas’ wife Sureen, who looks after the interior side of the business, the kitchen was manufactured by Lifestyle Projects with a red epoxy floor by Industrial Flooring Systems. The red touch pops up in the bathrooms too, where red tiled showers with red glass walls by Whipco are indulgent and sensual. Both showers in the main bedrooms lead outside, exactly as they should in any respectable bushveld lodge.

Sureen picked up on Thomas’s glass theme and used it in the bathrooms where 15mm glass slabs become simple yet sophisticated vanity tops.

Upstairs, the bathrooms and bedrooms link to a study, over a bridge through a forest of hanging light bulbs. Sureen was also responsible for furnishing the Serengeti show house and has used simple neutrals such as wood and white to complement the contemporary lodge feel.

Modern art by Pretoria artist Antoinette Uys includes a four-panelled sugar painting featuring hundreds of tiny hand-drawn ants. Her black-and-white paintings are hung throughout the house, adding to the modern bushveld mood.

Viewed from outside and in the evening, this house literally reaches for the stars, with the roof elevated from the walls through the use of glass windows beneath the eaves. It is a dream house for anyone wanting to live a sophisticated, African way of life.

Thomas Gouws Architects and Interiors 012 460 9867, tgarchitects.co.za

Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate 0861 396 396, serengeti.co.za

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